The Icelanders are a very simple, excellent people, and exceedingly kind and hospitable to strangers. This is not the place for me to tell you how much kindness I experienced among them; but if I were to do so, you would have as high a regard for them as I have. They have in general a considerable degree of intelligence, but I was surprised to find that a great many of them did not know where the Geysers were, or anything about them.
There are many springs of the same kind in several parts of Iceland; but those that are generally known as the Geysers, are near the town of Haukadal, in the south-west part of Iceland. To these I went in company with four other persons, and a guide.
After a dreary ride through a wild volcanic looking country, we left our horses in a safe place, and then, proceeding some distance on foot, we saw clouds of steam arising over the hills before us. A little further on we got into the plain, where the Geysers are situated, which is full of boiling springs and holes sending out steam like the valve of a steam-boiler.
The great Geyser is at the top of a hillock, which seems to have been formed in the course of years by the substances which the hot water holds in solution, and deposits as it cools.
At the top of this mound we found a pond of the shape of a saucer, lined with the most curious incrustations of spar, which exactly resembled the heads of cauliflowers. It was then about half full of the most beautiful hot water, as clear as crystal, which was just stirred in gentle waves by the steam that rose up from the opening at the bottom of the basin.
We took advantage of this tranquil state of the spring, to examine this opening. We let down a line, with a weight at the end, to the depth of about eighty feet, and as nearly as we could judge, it went down perpendicularly.
The hole was nearly round, and about nine feet in diameter, but it got gradually wider towards the top like a funnel. The inside showed the same kind of flinty incrustation as the hillock was composed of, worn as smooth as glass by the forcible passage of the water. The water was then at a temperature of two hundred degrees.
The saucer-shaped reservoir was fifty feet across, and four feet deep.
I ought to tell you that the waters of the Geysers have a petrifying property, and hence the ground all around them is covered with what was once grass, moss, and sticks, converted into stone, of which we brought away many beautiful specimens.
It was very late in the evening when we had completed this examination, and fixed our tent where we intended to pass the night. The springs still continued quiet, and you may judge how impatient we were for something to be going on. However, as it was dark, and we were very tired, having had a great deal of fatigue during the day, we lay down in the tent and went to sleep.